Identification and characterization of yeast strains associated with the fermented rice beverages of Garo Hills, Meghalaya, India

Fermented Rice Beverage is one of the most popular and ethnic fermented alcoholic beverages of Meghalaya Region located in North-eastern part of India. Locally, rice beverage is known as Chubitchi by Garo, kyiad by Khasi and Sadhiar by Jaintias tribes of Meghalaya, it is prepared by using rice and dried starter culture. Dried starter culture or Wanti is used for traditional rice beverage processing by Garo tribes. The nature of microbes was assessed and their source during fermentation was studied generally to explore the microbial diversity associated with the rice beverage samples. Yeast cultures have health attributes and applied in fermented rice beverages since age old. In this study, six yeast cultures were isolated from twenty indigenous fermented food samples collected from various regions of Meghalaya.